Dolly’s father tried to strangulate her in front of me: Nitin Mirchandani

Mystery deepens further in Dolly Berry’s alleged attempt to suicide case, as her husband Nitin Mirchandani blames her father for her present condition. While her elder sister Deepika Berry had earlier told Nation Next that Dolly tried to commit suicide because of the continuous harassment by her husband, Nitin denied all the allegations leveled against him.

As 23-year-old Dolly, aka Pearl Nitin Mirchandani, struggles for her life in a state of semi coma at New Era Hospital in Nagpur, the allegations and counter allegations on social media by both the families have intensified. While police have registered a case of dowry harassment against Nitin, they are clueless about the possibility of Dolly’s attempting suicide. Shivaji Gaikwad, Senior Police Inspector, Pratap Nagar police station, where the case is registered, told us that they were waiting for Dolly to regain consciousness for further investigation.

The truth, as the police opine, will come out with Dolly’s statement after her recovery, for which senior neurosurgeon Dr Nilesh Agrawal and his team at the hospital are trying their best. While we, at Nation Next, wish Dolly speedy recovery and wait to decipher the complete truth, we question the accused Nitin Mirchandani about the allegations leveled against him by Dolly’s family. Excerpts.

After learning about your wife Dolly’s attempt to commit suicide on July 25, why didn’t you go to meet her in the hospital?

I was informed about Dolly’s condition almost 24 hours after she was shifted to New Era Hospital from Mayo Hospital, where she was initially admitted. I somehow managed to see Dolly in the hospital despite her family’s opposition. They even stopped my family members from meeting Dolly by asking the guards to not to allow them to enter the hospital gate. I then informed the police (at Ganeshpeth Police Station) in writing about her condition on July 28. Earlier, on her birthday (July 21), Dolly’s family took her away from my Khamla residence against my wish. Four days after her birthday, she tried to commit suicide at her parent’s Ganeshpeth residence; and her family lodged a complaint at Pratap Nagar police station, more than a month later on August 28. I fail to understand what took them so long to file a complaint!

After this incident, my father-in-law (Sevendre Berry) asked my brother-in-law (sister’s husband) to visit his office, as he wanted me to end all my relations with Dolly by giving her divorce. In fact, my father-in-law even demanded Rupees six lakhs from me in the name of Dolly’s treatment. Though we didn’t agree with my father-in-law’s idea of divorce, we were completely ready to finance Dolly’s treatment. We were constantly asking for my father-in-law’s account number to transfer the amount but he sent somebody else’s account details. He said that he didn’t want such a huge transaction to appear in his bank statement. We didn’t transfer the amount because we found it to be a bit fishy. Later, they could have denied receiving any cash from us.

How do you respond to Deepika’s allegations that you don’t work and are into betting?

I’m currently taking care of my family business (transport), which was set up by my grandfather. I can’t buy cars as good as Hyundai Elantra and Mahindra XUV 500 through betting. I’m also into property dealing.

Dolly’s family says that you even kicked her, which led to her miscarriage.

When Dolly was pregnant, I took her to the gynecologist Dr Anita Singh for a routine checkup. We were told that the baby was healthy but Dolly was advised to take rest. Dolly’s mother, Neelam Berry, took Dolly with herself to their house, saying that she wanted Dolly to stay with them for a couple of days, to which I agreed. A day later, when I was at Khapri for some work, Deepika called me up, saying that Dolly was unwell due to abdominal pain. I immediately asked her to rush her to Dr Anita Singh’s clinic at Ramdaspeth, where her treatment was going on. While I was on my way back from Khapri, I again received a call from Deepika, saying that they had taken Dolly to a hospital at CA road. When Dolly’s treatment was going on at Dr Anita Singh’s clinic, why did they take her to some other clinic? She had already suffered a miscarriage by the time I reached the hospital. Her mother told me that it was a healthy child. Had I kicked Dolly, would her parents have ever send Dolly back to my place after her abortion?

They say that as your mother wasn’t very happy with Dolly, you had to interact majorly with her through messages. Is it true?

Had this been true, how would Dolly be pregnant? We had a smooth relationship. My mother treated her like her own daughter.

Deepika claims that she had given Rupees three lakhs to Dolly for doing some business but you lost the entire money in betting…

This is a false allegation. Deepika never gave Dolly any money. Even if she did, I never took anything from her.

Dolly’s family said that you were booked for molesting a girl on April 21, 2015. And you concealed the fact that you were married twice before marrying Dolly.

That’s false. She was my ex-girlfriend. Somebody out of jealousy brainwashed her to file a complaint. Even police had said that the story was fabricated. In fact, Dolly’s father only had come to Ambazari police station to help me out during that case. I was a divorcee before I got married to Dolly, which Dolly’s family was well aware of. I married only once before marrying Dolly.

Dolly’s family is blaming you for abetting her to commit suicide. They say that she got into depression because of the mental and physical torture by you…

My family and I can’t believe that Dolly tried to commit suicide. I feel Dolly’s father only tried to kill her as he was not happy with our marriage. He’s extremely short-tempered. I can say this because Dolly, before our marriage, often told me how her father would hit her for various reasons. He even tried to strangulate her in front of my family. We immediately had to intervene to save her. As per Dolly’s family, she tried to hang herself from a gas geyser, which is barely six to seven feet above the floor. I feel that the suicide couldn’t logically be possible as the gas geyser has a washbasin below it. So, did she try to hang herself from the gas geyser pipes? Dolly’s father is a gambler. In fact, he even lost his house in a bet, which bothered Dolly a lot. Dolly was the only earning member in her family with a salary of Rs 25,000 per month. When she got married, her family’s only source of income stopped. Dolly’s parents wanted her back so that she would again start giving her earnings to them. So, they were desperate for the divorce.